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Is this the end for GM and Ford ?


The Pirate

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Back to the TopicWink. I can't see it happening to Ford.....maybe GM but not Ford. There European division is doing very well and are turning out some pretty decent vehicles, some of which are class leaders in many respects. But I could be wrongConfused

Merida Man2008-07-01 02:46:56

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Having lived in the USA for many years owned a Ford and a Chevvy or two' date=' and, on top of that I worked for a massive Ford dealership in Boston (they had nearly two hundred employees) as a driver for the mobile workshop crew whilst I was still a student, I have a small insight into the American love of cars.

 

Ford and GM cars will NEVER loose their sparkle in the USA, they break down constantly but are dirt cheap to repair, they guzzle fuel but its still cheap compared to international prices, they have a cheap entry level cost, come with everything except a coffee mug and make a ludicrous amount of CO 2 emmissions, but they are probably still the biggest sellers in the US.

 

............... the problem is the rest of the world dosnt want em, and thats a huge lost market.   

 

No self respecting "blue collar worker" is gonna be seen dead in a little 1300 Corsa bakkie, no Siree Bob, not gonna happen, the American love of muscle cars and big engines is still very strong.

 
[/quote']

When my brother went over to the USA a few years ago to work he thought he would get a "little" car to drive around with. When he walked into a dealership and said he wanted something small they stared at him as if he was from outer space (but in the USA if you are from another country then you are from outer space). At the end of the day the smallest car he could get was a Toyota Camry.

 

It's also true that there cars can do almost everything except make coffee, and at half the price of a SA entry levelCry
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The next question would be: how will the oil prices be affected if Barak Obama becomes president and pulls the troops out of Iraq as he has promised to do?

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Due to the high price in Petrol (Globaly) certain companies have cut back on making the Bigger motor and Panel van type cars, Chrysler , GM, etc have had to close certain factories that produce these bigger vehicles. However they will still remain focused on the smaller vehicle market.

 

The same will happen across all makes as the high fuel price starts to bite (Okay okay takes out BIG CHUNKS) and the buyers start to buy more fuel economic vehicles.

 

It's not the buying price of 4x4 etc that will be the problem , it's the monthly fuel costs.

 
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Hee,Hee, thats true Speed devil, ...........a "Man" gotta have at least a V6 under the hood.!Big%20smile

 

A good 1 year old "Luxury" Ford or GM car / Truck, with all the extras, air con, leather seats, radio / 6cd player, air bags, etc,etc and a service plan will knock you back no more than $7000.00 bucks and you could probably negotiate a discount off that  - not sure you can even get a Chinese special for that price here.

   
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Not even a Chery! For those from the east rand' date=' the car not the babe!

[/quote']

 

for R7000 you can get cancer in the East rand,  if you look long enough

 

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In the news paper today : GM's shares hit a record high of $93.62 on April 24, 2000, but fell at one point Monday to $11.12 dollars, marking its lowest level in over half-a-century. Its shares subsequently closed down slightly at $11.50.

 

 

 

Since the beginning of June, GM's share price has tumbled over 35%.

 

 

 

That sounds like BIG trouble to me.

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In the news paper today : GM's shares hit a record high of $93.62 on April 24' date=' 2000, but fell at one point Monday to $11.12 dollars, marking its lowest level in over half-a-century. Its shares subsequently closed down slightly at $11.50.

Since the beginning of June, GM's share price has tumbled over 35%.

That sounds like BIG trouble to me.[/quote']

 

Phoeew, I dont really follow this sort of thing but that cant be good on their balance sheet.

 

I saw on the TV some time back they owed the banks billions of dollars, I think the US government may have to bail them out, they cant afford to allow them to close down.

 

I wonder if some other manufacturer will make an offer to buy them out, BMW, Mercedes and even VW would love to increase their USA footprint and if they can up the build quality and improve the gas consumption without increasing prices too much they could be onto a winner.

 

............but methinks GM even at $11.00 bucks a share would still come at a hefty price tag.

 
porky2008-07-01 10:15:23
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DETROIT - US auto sales plunged in June to a 15-year low, but a month-end clearance sale helped General Motors Corp retain its No. 1 spot and steer clear of the wipeout many had feared, sending its shares higher?GM was the industry's main surprise after a sale featuring zero percent financing for six years allowed the U.S. automaker to avoid losing sales leadership in the month to Toyota.

 

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GM has been struggling for years. One of the biggest issues as reported in the motoring press a few years ago, was their pension payments. It relates to employee benefit deals made in the 60s with trade unions that are crippling them now. Apparently the problems started for them when their retired ex-employees started living much longer than projected....blame modern medicine I guess.

 

That however is not the sole root of the issues. The fact is that these auto-makers have lost huge market share to Japanese companies.

 

And then of course there's the fact they just can't seem to screw together a decent car. A couple years ago the British Car Mag use to have a list of all vehicles sold in the UK with pros, cons, alternatives etc listed for every one. They said about the Chrysler Neon...."The only car to have panel gaps visible from the moon"

 

These companies need to make drastic changes if they're going to survive. They are not doing enough, even though I have no doubt they are trying.

 

They need a Carlos Ghosn type of approach, a man that performed miracles at turning near bankrupt Nissan into a great succes story.

 

Apparently longtime GM shareholder Kirk Kerkorian tried getting Ghosn to move to GM as CEO and also backed a deal for the Ghosn managed Renault/Nissan alliance to buy a big stake in GM. When talks broke off, he sold off most of his stock in GM.

 

As a matter of interest, from Wikipedia:

 

Ghosn (pronounced Ghoson) joined Nissan as its chief operating officer in June 1999, became its president in June 2000 and was named chief executive officer in June 2001. His turnaround of Nissan has gained him celebrity status in Japan, where he has published books and even has a manga

character based on him. When he joined the company, it had debt of $20

billion and only three of its 48 models were generating a profit.

Worse, Ghosn was viewed as an outsider by the media and parts of

Nissan. To counteract this view, Ghosn promised to resign if the

company did not reach profitability by the end of the year.[2] Ghosn claimed that Nissan would have no net debt by 2005. One year after he arrived, Nissan's net profit climbed to $2.7 billion from a loss of $6.1 billion in the previous year. Nissan's operating profit (EBIT, or earnings before interest and taxes) margin has increased from 1.38% in FY 2000 to 9.25% in FY 2006.

 

 

 

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I heard Ford and Renault wre planning to make a car together

the new model would be a mix of the Ford Taurus and the Renault Clio, but the plans failed when they they couldn't past the name of the new model

 

cli-taurus

LOL

 

 
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This car you taking about must be fun to play withLOLLOLLOLLOL

 

if you can find it. Wink

 

 

 

Heard it is parked under the ..............  oooooo what the heck leave, don'y want to be banned because I know where it is and others are jealousWinkWinkWinkWinkEmbarrassedEmbarrassedEmbarrassedEmbarrassed

 

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